Maybe Tomorrow
by divoccae
Summary: AU. What happens when Harry starts having odd dreams 21 years after the fall of Voldemort. Another one of those bring-Snape-back-from-the-dead denial stories.
1. Chapter 1

While writing (and rewriting, and rewriting some more) chapter 5 of New Understanding, I came across yet another half-abandoned story I started writing ages ago. Since I can never seem to manage to write for longer than twenty minutes at a time, I decided to post these drabble-like chapters in the hopes of entertaining the few people who see this site between chapters of New Understanding. The lyrics quoted are from a song found in Xenosaga v.1 for the PS2 (an awesome game, I recommend it). Enjoy.

_/italics/_ = dream

**Maybe Tomorrow**

"The moon is gone, and the night is still so dark

I'm a little bit afraid of tomorrow

For this day was so long and hard for me

And I've lost some of the things so far I had trusted

Now I will close my eyes and sleep a while

Bless my dreams with gentle darkness

Until I can find my strength to wait for the light.

Maybe tomorrow."

**[[ Part 1 ]]**

Twenty-one years after the downfall of Voldemort, Harry Potter experienced a phenomenon he had never before encountered. Insomnia. Or at least, that was what he assumed it was, at first.

"It's not insomnia," Hermione had corrected him matter-of-factly during the last dinner he'd had with her and Ron. "You say that you're falling asleep alright, and you're obviously sleeping through until morning. Have you ever considered that you have a sleeping disorder like sleep apnea, or perhaps somnambulism?"

"He doesn't snore, though." Ginny had replied, sipping slowly from her wine glass. "And he doesn't sleep-walk."

"Maybe you should go to St Mungo's, Harry. For a check-up, just in case."

He had promised to go, first thing the next morning. After dinner, he and Ginny had gone home to Godric's Hollow, and settled in for sleep.

His eyes had been closed for perhaps five minutes when the darkness behind his eyelids gave way to reveal the playground that Harry had grown up near, where his mother and Snape had played as children. The neighborhood seemed to be deserted, and the only sound that he could hear was the beating of his heart. After what felt like hours of sitting on a swing, waiting, Harry woke with a startled gasp.

"Harry?" Ginny asked, her small hands soothing on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes." Harry lied, sitting up. "Just need to use the loo."

Satisfied, Ginny rolled back over, leaving Harry to get up and walk to the water closet. He closed the door and turned on the light, staring at himself in the mirror.

He barely recognized his own face. Dark bags lined his eyes, which were blood-shot with exhaustion. He was incredibly pale, chin darkened with stubble. Desperate for rest, he opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the bottle of Dreamless Sleep Draught. Without a second thought, he unstoppered the bottle and drank down the contents. The taste was bittersweet, like dark chocolate, with an aftertaste that seemed to recall a Quidditch locker room. Wiping his mouth with the back of his shirtsleeve, Harry turned off the light and tip-toed downstairs to the living room.

The sofa was a large, comfortable piece of furniture that Harry had picked out just before marrying Ginny. It had stood watch as each of their three children had been born, and – as he sat down – he plucked one of Albus' miniature dragons from between the cushions. It was hard to believe that his children were all at Hogwarts already.

Sighing softly to himself, wondering where the time had gone, Harry laid down on the couch and closed his eyes.

**[[ Part 2 ]]**

_ /"Who are you?"_

_ Harry started at the unexpected question, and opened his eyes to see a young boy, about nine years old, peering down at him from beneath a curtain of limp, dirty black hair._

_ "I'm Harry." He stated, pushing up on his elbows so that he could take in his surroundings._

_ He was laying on the ground in the middle of the same park. Just over his shoulder, he could see the swings he had been sitting on in his last dream. In front of him, the young boy sat down on the ground, pulling his knees up to his skinny chest._

_ "Do you come here a lot, Harry?" the boy asked. "Are you looking for someone?"_

_ Harry shook his head. _

_ "Oh." The boy bit his lip, then looked down at his hands. "Do you know... if there's a holiday going on?"_

_ "A what?" Harry asked, surprised._

_ "It's just... there's no one here. Lily should be here, but she's not. And I thought... maybe she's celebrating a muggle holiday with her parents and forgot to tell me." the boy replied._

_ "Lily? Lily Evans?"_

_ The boy nodded. "She promised whenever I wanted to meet her, all I had to do was wait here."_

_ "You're Severus then. Severus Snape." Harry was sure of it, even before the boy nodded. "How long have you been waiting here?"_

_ "I dunno. Feels like days, but Da says I exaggerate too much. It's probably only been a few hours."_

_ Harry felt his heart break for the child-like Snape. "Do you want me to wait here with you?"_

_ Snape lifted his head to glare halfheartedly at the adult wizard before him. "I don't need your pity, Harry. Go pity someone else!"_

_ Before Harry could try to calm the child down, the younger Snape stood up and dashed off towards the edge of the deserted park./_

To Be Continued..._  
><em>


	2. Chapter 2

[[ Part 3 ]]

Harry woke with a shout, his arm outflung in the direction that Snape had been running in his dream. There was no one there.

Sitting up, he dragged a hand through his sweat-soaked hair and glanced at the clock. It was midnight, a full hour-and-a-half after he'd gone to bed. The Dreamless Sleep Draught hadn't worked at all.

_ "She promised whenever I wanted to meet her, all I had to do was wait here."_

Why was he thinking of that park, or Snape, at all? The man had been dead and buried almost twenty years.

"Must be the cheap stuff." Harry murmured, thinking of the strange aftertaste of the Draught he'd taken. He resettled himself on the couch, hoping perhaps it was a fluke, that the Potion hadn't quite kicked in just yet. He closed his eyes, and waited for sleep to reclaim him.

* * *

><p><em>The darkness parted once more, revealing the same desolate playground where he'd last seen 'little' Snape. Harry was sitting on the merry-go-round, fully expecting to see Snape's younger self. Instead, he heard the laughter of two children as the merry-go-round was suddenly pushed, and he came face-to-face with two boys.<em>

_ "Hullo, Harry." said the darker-haired of the two. "Been a while, hasn't it?"_

_ "Who are you?" Harry asked, cocking his head to the side. Steel-bright grey eyes seemed to laugh merrily at him beneath a wave of silk black hair, and the boy nudged his companion in the ribs._

_ "D'ya hear him, Moony? He doesn't recognize us."_

_ "Be serious for a moment -"_

_ "I am Sirius!" the tall boy laughed merrily, even as the boy beside him rolled his eyes._

_ "You mean to tell me that you're Sirius, and you're Remus?" Harry asked slowly._

_ The boys nodded in unison._

_ "Is Snape still here?"_

_ Sirius frowned, looking towards the bushes._

_ "He's rather shy of us." Remus sighed. "It was a miracle that you managed to coax him out at all."_

_ Thinking back to his previous dream, recalling Snape standing over him, Harry doubted he had 'coaxed' Snape out, so much as perhaps peaked his curiosity. "Why are the two of you here?"_

_ "Well..." Remus looked to Sirius, who crossed his arms over his chest and let out a puff of air._

_ "It's Karma." Sirius stated. "That whole send-Snape-into-the-Shrieking-Shack disaster is apparently not considered good-natured fun. Who'd have thought?"_

_ "I still don't understand. What has that to do with any of this?"_

_ "Snape has to make a decision, Harry. Until he makes that decision, Sirius can't leave, and I won't leave Sirius on his own." Remus glared at the dark-haired boy out of the corner of his eye. "Who knows what other trouble he'd cause without me here?"_

_ "Hey!" Sirius looked rather hurt, moving his large, puppy-dog eyes from Remus to Harry. "I waited here for years before Snape even got here, I can wait a few more!"_

_ "So this park is like Limbo?" Harry mused. "Is that why Snape keeps waiting for my mum?"_

_ "We're not sure." Remus replied. "When we first saw him here, we thought we could just approach him, talk to him like we would have before death. But Severus doesn't seem to remember anything beyond his tenth birthday. He remembers Lily, and he remembers this park, but he doesn't seem to remember us."_

_ "Most of the time, he hides over there, in the bushes." Sirius nodded in the direction across from the swings. "Don't try approaching him when he's over there. Little bugger likes to bite."_

_ "So he never leaves this place? This park?"_

_ Remus shook his head. "No. He's determined to wait for Lily."_

_ "But she won't come." Harry argued. "She's already moved on."_

_ At that, the werewolf nodded. "I don't know how much time has passed, Harry, but it's taking its toll on him. When he first got here, it was beautiful all the time. But as time moves on, everything's begun to die. The park is starting to disintegrate. I don't know how much more time he has to make the decision, but I can't think the consequences will be good if he doesn't make it."_

_ "What can I do?"_

_ Remus shrugged. "I don't know that there is anything you can do. But... he did act out, for you. Maybe... maybe you have enough of your mother in you to help him."_

* * *

><p>[[ Part 4]]<p>

"Harry!"

Harry gurgled on a shout, sitting upright so quickly that he almost bumped Ginny in the nose with his skull. With shaking fingers, he rubbed away the moisture that had gathered at the corners of his eyes, feeling emotionally torn. Even if it had only been an odd dream, it had felt good to see and to speak to Sirius and Remus. Yet his heart ached at the thought of Snape moping alone in that park, waiting for someone who wouldn't – couldn't – come.

"Where did you get that Dreamless Draught?" he asked shakily, hoping Ginny's words would reassure him that it had only been a dream.

"Hermione made it." his wife replied evenly. "Harry, what is going on?"

"The dream... it's getting worse. More real, I guess." He ran a hand through his sweaty-hair. "God, I hope it's only a dream."

"Dreams? What about?" Ginny sat down beside him, putting her head on his shoulder to comfort him.

Slowly, he wrapped an arm around her, reassuring himself that she was real. "About Snape being stuck in limbo, which looks a lot like the park I used to play in with my cousin."

"Limbo?" He could feel Ginny frown slightly against his chest. "It's been twenty years, Harry, I'm sure wherever it is, his soul has moved on."

"But how can I dream at all, after taking that Draught? Hermione's skills as a potions maker are top-notch, Gin. Something's wrong, I just know it."

He didn't mention all the previous times in their lives that his intuition had been correct – Ginny was all-too-well aware of that.

His wife hugged him tightly before withdrawing from him. "I'll make us some tea, and then I think you should firecall Hermione and see what her ideas on the matter are."

"You look awful, Harry." Hermione said through the blazing fire.

He flashed a tired smile at her. "Gee, thanks."

"Did you ever go to St. Mungo's?" The red-haired Potions professor asked. She didn't let him answer, choosing instead to smile before she said, "No, of course not."

"I was hoping you might be able to tell me," he started slowly, "why a person might have dreams, even after taking Dreamless Sleep Draught."

Hermione raised both of her eyebrows in surprise. "That's impossible, Harry. That's why they call it 'Dreamless Sleep'."

"It can't be impossible, because I had three dreams last night, 'Mione!" Harry hissed, slamming his fist on the hearth. "Three! And they were so real -"

"You only think you were dreaming, Harry. I've been telling you for years that you're working too hard, you need a break. This is your body's way of saying it's overloaded with information."

She was wrong, Harry knew it in the back of his mind. But instead of arguing, he just nodded in defeat. "You're right. Thanks, 'Mione."

He firecalled Kingsley five minutes later, and called in two-weeks worth of saved vacation time, then settled back down on the couch.

"Maybe Hermione is right." Ginny said softly, placing a hot cup of tea in front of her husband.

Harry threw his arm over his eyes. "I hope so."

Ginny brushed his hair back with her hand, then kissed him gently on the mouth. "I'll see you after work, love. Try to relax, okay?"

He nodded, and heard the sound of Ginny floo'ing to Gringotts. Sighing, he rolled over, and tried once more to sleep.

* * *

><p><em> The sky was dark, and Harry stood by the slide in the park, feeling the rain soak through his clothes and plaster his hair to his face.<em>

_ He was staring in shock at the child-like Snape, who was crouched beneath the slide, shivering with cold and soaked through the skin._

_ "What are you doing out here in the rain?" Harry asked, feeling like he was scolding one of his own children. "Don't you have any common sense? You'll get sick."_

_ "She said she'd be here!" Snape retorted petulantly, hugging his knees tightly to his chest._

/But she's not coming./_ Harry longed to say the words, but Snape seemed so lost, so uncharacteristically naïve, that he couldn't bring himself to burst the boy's bubble._

_ A grumble of thunder was a small warning before lightning threaded the sky, making the ground tremble beneath them. Snape didn't suppress a shout of fear – the boy seemed to curl more tightly in on himself._

_ Wordlessly, Harry knealt in the wet sand beside the boy, and pulled Snape into a loose hug. "It's okay, it's just a storm."_

_ "I hate this place!" Snape hissed, teeth chattering against his volition. "I hate her! She lied to me, she always lied!"_

_ "I'm sure she'd be here if she could, Severus." Harry murmured, pulling Snape more tightly against his chest. Snape didn't even fight him, seeming to prefer the additional warmth, despire Harry's wet clothes. "I don't think she lied on purpose."_

_ Another rumble of thunder combined with lightning, and Snape was clinging to Harry like James and Albus had when they were very young._

_ "If you hate this place so much, why are you still here?"_

_ "Can't... leave." Snape murmured. "I try... but... I get lost in the woods."_

_ "You can't stay here, Severus." He rested a damp cheek on top of Snape's wet head, feeling a painful compassion for the boy._

_ "Don't leave me!" Snape's words were whispered against Harry's neck. "Those boys will come back. They want to hurt me, I know they do."_

_ "They aren't going to hurt you, Severus. They want to help."_

_ "No they don't. They yell at me. They lie a lot. They say we went to school together, but I've never been to school."_

_ Feeling Snape relax against him, Harry decided to try pushing: "Did you bite Sirius?"_

_ Snape pulled away, staring up at Harry with big black eyes indignantly. "He said he was going to beat sense into me! I was protecting myself."_

/Yeah, that sounds like Sirius./

_ "They aren't going to beat you, and they won't hurt you, Severus. Just... hear them out, okay?"_

_ Snape shook his head rapidly, then threw himself at Harry, his stick-like arms wrapping around Harry's neck. "Please don't go! I don't want to be alone!"_

_ But Harry could already feel himself waking up..._

To Be Continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Author Notes: It's been a long time since this story was updated (I actually have another completed chapter, and most of a second as well). So maybe I'll pick it up again over the summer. Maybe.

* * *

><p>Harry didn't go directly back to sleep. Instead, he went to the kitchen for buttered toast, then he settled into the study, hoping to review the last big match between England and Wales that he'd been unable to attend in person. He found himself transfixed instead with the old photo album they'd found in the house as he and Ginny'd been remodeling.<p>

It had belonged to his mother, that much had been clear as soon as they'd opened it. Pictures of a young girl and boy – Lily and Snape – stared up from the page in simple muggle photographs. Harry hadn't taken much time to go over the album back then – there'd been too much on his mind, and he hadn't wanted to reawaken the grief he'd felt that Snape had died in vain. Now, looking at the pictures, he could see that the Snape from the photographs looked like the Snape in his dream, right down to the same oddly over-sized coat.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" Harry mused aloud, running a finger over the photograph.

In his dream, Remus had said that Snape needed to make a decision. A decision about what? Was Snape allowed to make the same choice Harry had made, twenty years ago in what had appeared to be King's Cross Station, even though his body had been buried nearly two decades?

Recalling the desperation with which Snape's ten-year-old self had clung to Harry, begging him not to leave, he couldn't help but want to help his mother's childhood friend. But how, and with what?

It made his head hurt, and so Harry went to the bathroom for a restorative to help soothe the pain. He then decided to try napping in the master bedroom. Laying in bed, he turned on the muggle television to a football match, and let his eyes drift closed.

_ "Hold still!" Sirius was shouting as Harry opened his eyes._

_ Once again, he was in the park, and the rain was coming down in a torrent. In the grass nearby, Harry saw Snape, face-first on the ground, Sirius astride his back as the smaller boy attempted to get away._

_ "Get off!"_

_ "Sirius, you're scaring him!" Remus yelled, trying to pull the black-haired boy off Snape._

_ "Not scared!" Snape huffed. "Get off me, you oaf!"_

_ "Stop it!" Harry ordered, running towards them._

_ Sirius looked up from his seat on Snape's back with a surprised smile before standing up. Harry knelt beside the smaller boy, and helped Snape to his feet. His clothes were caked with mud, and his face was streaked with it. As soon as Snape was on his feet, the boy lunged towards Sirius, only to be caught back as Harry wound a firm arm about his waist._

_ "Let me go!" Snape growled, twisting viciously in Harry's hold. Harry winced as ragged nails dug into the skin of his arm, but didn't let go._

_ "What, you think you're going to hit me, short-stuff?" Sirius goaded with a smirk._

_ "You're not helping, Padfoot!" Remus scolded._

_ "It's not my fault he wasn't listening -"_

_ Snape let out a frustrated growl, trying now to stomp on Harry's feet, and kick at his shins._

_ "Ouch!" the older wizard shouted in pain. "Calm down, Severus! Sirius, behave yourself!"_

_ He hauled Snape towards the merry-go-round, and deposited the squirming ten-year-old on the floor of it. Snape's clothes made a sloshing sound, and the boy had to blink rapidly to keep the rain from stinging his eyes._

_ "Severus, listen to me." Harry grasped Snape by the shoulders, and stared into dark eyes that were glaring angrily at him. "You can't stay here. This storm is getting worse."_

_ "I don't care!" came the petulant reply. "You said that they wouldn't hurt me, and that lug threw me in the mud! You're a liar, Harry!"_

_ "Hey! Listen, listen to me!" Snape was refusing to look at him, so Harry grabbed him by the chin, forcing their eyes to meet again. He was somewhat surprised to see a sheen of sadness to the bright black eyes. "You don't have to go back, but you can't stay here."_

_ "I already told you," Snape shouted, "that I get lost when I leave!"_

_ "We'll go with you, Severus." Remus reassured. "You won't get lost. You won't be alone."_

_ "I'd rather be lost than go with the two of you!" Snape growled, then turned his eyes pleadingly toward Harry. "You can't make me go! Not with them! Please!"_

_ Unsure of what to say, Harry leaned forward awkwardly, wrapping his arms around Snape in a manner that he hoped was more comforting than intrusive._

_ "Can't... can't you take me home?" the boy's voice was little more than a trembling whisper._

_ "I'll go with you as far as I can." Harry replied. He pulled away, and offered Snape a hand to hold. Snape took it, and slid off the merry-go-round, glaring at Sirius from around Harry's arm._

_ The four of them walked to the edge of the park, past the bushes that seemed to border it._

_ "I can't wait to see Prongs again!" Sirius said, excitement evident in his voice as they passed over a river. "Wonder what the ol' boy's been up to all these years."_

_ "I hope Tonks isn't too upset with me." Remus murmured._

_ The rain was dying down to little more than a sprinkling of water, Harry noted with some relief. Up ahead, he could see light on the edge of the forest. "Have you ever gotten this far before, Severus?"_

_ Snape shook his head, sending droplets of water flying from the tips of his hair. The small hand in his tightened its grip on Harry's. Even Remus and Sirius seemed somewhat nervous, because Sirius was now holding Harry's free hand, and Remus had a tight grip on Sirius' other arm._

_ "Well." Harry said. "Here goes nothing."_

_ Together, the four of them stepped forward towards the light, which seemed to suddenly surround them…_

* * *

><p><em>TBC<em>


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